The use of philosophy is to maintain an active novelty of fundamental ideas illuminating the social system. It reverses the slow descent of accepted thought towards the inactive commonplace. If you like to phrase it so, philosophy is mystical. For mysticism is direct insight into depths yet unspoken. But the purpose of philosophy is to rationalize mysticism: not by explaining it away, but by  the introduction of novel verbal characterizations, rationally coördinated. (Alfred North, Whitehead, Modes Of Thought, Macmillan, The Free Press, 1938, p 174.)

This first essay is preparatory to a full-length study of what is probably the earliest of the four gospels, of which stories of miracles account for approximately one third. It selects Mark's almost complete series of five 'messianic events', the series of non-healing miracles, and argues for the inclusion of the first miracle story of John in order to complete the form and intention inherent in this sixfold cycle. It then considers the relation of the Eucharist to this series; three of the messianic miracles are Eucharistic ('feeding') events in kind. The seven 'messianic' events so constituted, correspond both logically, or in terms of the form of the propositions they contain, and referentially, to the story of the week of 'beginning', Genesis 1.1.-2.4a, to which the study defers immediately.

This, the P creation narrative is interpreted as accounting for the universe in terms of  three analogously related, categoreal 'forms of unity': mind-body, space : time and male-female. These are the subjects of the paired rubrics Day 1 - Day 4; Day 2 - Day 5; and Day 3 - Day 6 respectively. Their hermeneutic stresses the significance of the formal contours of the narrative, explicit in the numerical ordering of its components, and consequently their three modes of antithesis. Its radically triadic form is read as the locus classicus of the biblical doctrine of Trinity.

The real emphasis of the Genesis text accrues to the Christological categories Mind, and mind : body, since their depositions given in the Day 1 - Day 4 rubrics, begin each of the two narrative halves; and to which the story's continuous repetition of the light-time motif also attests. Thus the import of these three-six entities or conceptual forms, concerns their role in human and sub-human consciousnesses, mind. They are essential to the doctrine of humankind as created 'in the image and likeness of God'. The Trinitarian-theological inflection of the creation story is therefore Christological, in keeping with  logos theology of the Johannine prologue. The meaning of the three part analogy is examined prior to the consideration of the messianic events.


The sevenfold messianic series is understood as fulfillment of the sevenfold P creation narrative, as 'end' to 'the beginning'. Thus the doctrine of Mind, tantamount to the doctrine of the Son, and inseparable from the doctrine of the triune nature of God, and the doctrine of the imago Dei  first announced in the P creation story, are essential to its meaning. We concentrate firstly upon the three 'Eucharistic' or 'feeding' messianic miracles and the Eucharist itself, as complementary to the the second half of the creation story, Days 4, 5, 6, and 7. We propose that the two series, beginning and end, creation and salvation, are mutually inclusive, given their analogous rapport. Since the Sabbath of the P narrative belongs logically to its second half, the 3:4 structure of the text as a whole corresponds to that of the seven messianic events, of which four are immanent ('feeding') in kind. The structural interrelation of the two narrative cycles we examine analogously to the paradigm transcendence : immanence, the categoreal paradigm, which is tantamount to the inclusio of Genesis 1.1, 'the heavens and the earth'.

A brief introduction to the presentation of sense-perception in the healing miracles, shows that exactly six of these concern sense-perception: the three modes, hearing, seeing and touching. Each of these three 'phenomenal' modes of sense-perception is treated twice. There follows a brief introduction to the semiotic forms, which expound the various numerical details given in the Eucharistic miracles, and the formulation of a Trinitarian theory of perception. We shall later posit that the Eucharist itself accords with this presentation of the perceptual polarity of mind (consciousness), pursuant to the deposition of its corresponding conceptual pole in the creation narrative, insofar as its actual subject is the sense-percipient mode(s) smell-taste. We note the literal references to taste, in connection with death, in both Christological messianic miracles: Transformation Of Water Into Wine and Transfiguration. Hence the Christological category, mind : body, or soma, is construed firstly in terms of the four immanent, Eucharistic, sense-percipient modes, and the three outstanding, primordial conceptual components of the creation taxonomy. We shall later argue that these are normative for their respective series, conformably to the categoreal paradigm transcendence : immanence.

The phenomenal modes of sense-percipience, touch, seeing and hearing, are determined vis-à-vis the spatiotemporal bifurcation of perceptual consciousness into past and future, that is, memory and imagination. This analysis answers analogously the binary division of the creation story into Days 1-3 and 4-7, in its recapitulation of the opening scriptural inclusio 'the heavens and the earth'. Thus, even as the categoreal paradigm, transcendence : immanence designates the extensive relation of the two series, 7 Days of the creation series and 7 events of the messianic, salvation series, its intensive reiteration occurs within each sevenfold narrative chain, further securing their analogous isomorphism.

The bifurcation of the messianic series is accomplished by the systematic use by both Mark and Matthew, of the phrase 'εἰς τὸ πέραν' - ' ('crossing over') 'to the other side' (Mark 4.35, 5.1, 21, 6.45, 53).  (John also uses this formula, and also of the two Transcendental messianic miracles. Those two narratives establish the centre of the chiasmos which the complete messianic miracle series forms. Both synoptics, Mark and Matthew, contain the messianic series in its completed form except for the first sign, notably listed as such, from the gospel of John.) This formula organizes the six episodes into two polarised subsets, so recapitulating the categoreal paradigm, transcendence : immanence, once more again within that sevenfold series, including the final event, the Eucharist. This further ensures the morphological congruence of both narrative cycles, creation and salvation, stories of 'beginning and end'; the narratives of the seven Days and the seven messianic events. Other factors such as the consistently systematic contrast between identity as transcendence and unity as immanence, between three and four of the messianic events respectively, further validate the analogous ordering of the textual catenae.

Both textual cycles, the creation series, the narrative of 'beginning', and the messianic series, the narrative of 'end', convey the doctrine of imago Dei, the 'image and likeness of God' borne by humankind, (Genesis 1.26-27). Together they propose a fully articulated anthropological doctrine, a philosophical psychology as theory of mind, and as Christology. The creation narrative reveals the conceptual polarity of consciousness, while the story of salvation contained summarily in the messianic events, discloses perceptual consciousness. Once again, we revert to the analogous relation between the three modes of sense-percipience and transcendence : immanence, the categoreal paradigm introduced in the story of beginning as the inclusio 'the heavens and the earth'.


Following a review of the four categories basic to Markan metaphysics, which constitute the two polarities of consciousness or mind, namely: pure conceptual forms, conceptual forms of unity, forms of memory and forms of imagination; we consider certain implications of the hermeneutic - the New Testament theology of creation; the Pauline adoption of the second creation story; and the two great Christological miracle stories: Transformation Of Water Into Wine, and Transfiguration. Finally, in preparation for future studies, we investigate  some of the philosophical issues pertinent to  the Christian theology of mind.

 MIND AND TIME

THE THEOLOGY OF SEMIOTIC FORMS

This essay builds on the former study, adding to discussion of the stories of 'beginning' and 'end', the creation narrative and the messianic series, The Apocalypse. The reason for which is that the formal evidence alone suggests that the three texts be considered as a synthesis. This last book of the New Testament contains at least four sevenfold series, of which three are enumerated as such, in obvious intertextual rapport with the two homologous sevenfold series of Genesis and the gospel, those of creation and salvation. The contextual integration of the three cycles yields the observation that each is inclined in virtue of one of the three phenomenal modes of sentience. The creation account shows a marked predilection for the acoustic, God's creation through the spoken word; the messianic and healing miracles for the haptic; and The Apocalypse for the optic. Their various predilections specifying the three phenomenal modes of sense-percipience serve to co-ordinate these narratives. They indicate both the basis of a Christian theory of semiotics and language, and a theology of revelation itself, and corroborate the methodological use of the three semiotic series to which the three Eucharistic miracles refer. These three narrative cycles are verbally, and so, semiologically, interdependent and Christological, in keeping with Johannine Christology of 'the Word'. Syntactically, they expound the doctrine of Christ, in keeping with the doctrine of mind.

We briefly consider the story of The Flood, its Pneumatological strain and its relation to the theology of creation, noting references to colour, time, and the dove ('Jonah'). We then survey the epilogue of John, as it categorises the 'Eucharistic' intent of the three immanent messianic miracles, consonantly with the Christological introduction of The First Letter Of John. Both of these texts are adduced in support of the previous hermeneutic of the messianic miracle narratives, and of the identification of the three sense-percipient modes linking the three textual cycles as well as their pre-occupation with sevenfold serial forms. The epilogue, John 21 provides succinct and important information about the order of the three Eucharistic miracles. The supposedly enigmatic numerical reference enumerating the catch of fish, 153, is consonant with the chronological order of the messianic miracles, as maintained by all four gospels, highlighting the three normative, Eucharistic, immanent events; and the three injunctions to Simon Peter to 'feed my sheep' square with the same hermeneutic. This pattern confirms the temporal sequence of the Eucharistic miracles, as of the messianic miracle series in its entirety: Water Into Wine, Stilling The Storm, Feeding Five Thousand-Walking On Water, Feeding Four Thousand, Transfiguration. Each of the seven messianic events occupies a specific diurnal/nocturnal interval. Given the logical isomorphism of the narrative cycles, these same durations signifying the hierarchical ordering of the perceptual radicals of consciousness, also reflect the order the analogous conceptual forms of the Genesis story, a propos of a graded temporal hierarchy.

The order of the seven creation-salvation events is first to be understood in relation to the theology of the semeioptika, the subject of the story of The Feeding Of The Four Thousand. That narrative encodes both taxonomies, the conceptual and perceptual radicals of mind, relatively to time. It does so in virtue of a specific form of perceptual memory, the optic, and so mandates and highlights the utility to theological method of colour, prefatory to the eschatological and visionary final member of the canon, in which the governing categories are all four Pneumatological radicals of consciousness: the perceptual radicals, optic memory : optic imagination, and the conceptual categories, male : female.

The outline of the diurnal/nocturnal temporal sequence of the seven messianic events, and the seven events of 'beginning' is corroborated by the formulaic references to 'day, morning and evening', in the creation story. Such a diurnal/nocturnal pattern is supplemented with the equally paradigmatic annual temporal cycle, with its four outstanding, cardinal point-instants: the two equinoxes and two solstices. For which, the zodiacal references of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse vouch. Both figures, the tetrad and heptad, 4 and 7, are clearly contained in the Pneumatological, Eucharistic miracle story. This fourfold, spatiotemporal 'architectonic' is then adopted as not only intrinsic to religious consciousness, but viewed as innately congruent with the fourfold disposition of the gospel. That hermeneutic is vindicated by the ultimate recurrence of this same paradigm, that of the 'four living creatures' within the eschatology of The Apocalypse, confirming the visions of Ezekiel 1 and 10. Both books are classical Pneumatological texts of their respective canons.

We begin the exposition of the doctrine of intentionality a propos of Christology, the doctrine of consciousness, essential to understanding the person of the logos, the transcendent Son of the gospel of John. The explication postulates that four radical modes of intentionality are idiomatically operative within each of the four gospels, functioning as analogues to the four cardinal points of the annual cycle, its four, dynamic tipping points: the two equinoxes and two solstices. The latter are of profound, consistent, and universal religious significance, clearly visible in human monuments from earliest recorded times, in a wide variety of locations; for example, the Goseck Circle, Newgrange, Stonehenge, and the temple at Karnak. They mark the four outstanding structural features of the annual cycle, as paradigmatic of the two orders of consciousness: the conscious and the aconscious. The same is expressed in the four, distinct and various ratios of diurnal and nocturnal temporal intervals.

This iconographical, archaeoastronomical representation of the logical and relational structure of the gospels vis-à-vis the theology of the logos, adverts to the primacy of time itself as an ultimately general, conceptual component of human consciousness, grafted to the awareness of death and regeneration. The primary, formal contours of the unity of the four gospels, emblematically of immanence, are demonstrative of the plurality of their four various soterio-eschatologies. Its scriptural warrant is present in both canons: the four  zodiacal signs referred to in Ezekiel 1.1-25 and 10.1-20, and thereafter in the many references to the 'four living creatures' (zoa) throughout the Apocalypse, which adopt the former. The latter reckon the temporal-iconographical fourfold structure of the gospels, and are an indispensable key to any construal of the four sevenfold series of that book.

Introducing the theology of semiotic forms by examining the reference to time and colour in Matthew 16.1-4, we relate this to the first messianic event recorded in the synoptic gospels, The Stilling Of The Storm, the subject of which is the Pneumatological category, optic imagination. Accounting for its implicit and explicit links with the 'sign of Jonah' saying, all of which ratify the value to theology of semiotic forms, we introduce the doctrine of intentionality, the doctrine of consciousness, noting its earliest emergence in the J creation story, which refers to both desire and knowing. The hermeneutic asserts that various intentional perspectives are manifest in and specific to each of the four gospels.  We arrive at the postulate of four elemental modes of conscious and aconscious intentionality, operative specifically within each of the gospels, and which guide the particularity of their soteriologies. The conscious intentional modes are: desire, knowing, willing and belief. The first to be discussed will be desire, in relation to the gospel of Luke, following the order of the messianic miracle series itself, whose first sign is The Transformation Of Water Into Wine At Cana (John 2.1-11).





1 DESIRE AND BELIEF-IN-DESIRE (20.04.2023, Currently available.)

This is the first of the gospels to be accounted for in terms of the doctrine of intentionality and the theology of semiotic forms. On the basis of the all-encompassing Christological premise regarding mind and time, we argue that Luke is pre-eminently aware of the reality of both desire and belief-in-desire as foundational to human consciousness. From which point of view, those chapters of the gospel leading up to the beginning of the travel narrative (Luke 9.51s) are discussed in this first section. The plethora of meal scenes in Luke, and the pervasive theme of appetition-satisfaction which comports with the Eucharistic miracle narratives, are summoned in support of the thesis that this gospel is idiomatically premised on the reality of desire, in both its conscious and aconscious permutations, as a fundamental component in animal-human consciousness.

2 SEMEIHAPTIKA - THE BODY AND TOUCH

The doctrine of the haptic semiosis, which bears upon the Christian understanding of the logos and language, is introduced. The four Pneumatological such forms, womb and phallos, and the limbs, both upper and lower, are considered first. They are taken in relation to the Markan healing miracle stories, as well as their Lukan and Matthean recensions in certain cases. The four Christological and the four Transcendental somatic signs or semeihaptika, complete this brief survey, as the introduction to the later consideration of the instrumentality of desire to knowing, and the notion of embodied cognition. This leads to the conceptual form crucial to Luke's theology, the mind : body, soma, as an interface between masculine and feminine, since all of the semeihaptika are legitimately disposed in virtue of one or the other. In turn, we examine the Day 4 rubric which incorporates three tropes: sun, moon and stars, signal of the masculine, feminine and 'neuter' vis-à-vis embodiment. Finally we resume the discussion of the modes of antithesis first given in the hermeneutic of the creation narrative. These various aspects of Luke's theology of the body are then pressed into the service of an epistemology whose first objective is to confront the binary constructs of the texts.

3 THE  FOURTH DAY AND THE MIRACLE AT CANA (Updated 11.03.2020.)


1 KNOWING AND WILL-TO-BELIEVE  (21.02.2023, Currently available.)

The initial treatment of this gospel follows the procedure adopted for the gospel of Luke. It is necessary to first address what are foundational to the soteriology specific to Mark: the intentional modes of knowing and the will-to-believe. These are both accounted for as phylogenetic rather than ontogenetic. That is, they depict consciousness in its social and public nature, rather than its personal and individual cast. In this respect, the gospel of Mark is at complete variance with the gospel of Luke. The defining criterion of will-to-believe, namely freedom, and that of knowing, which is heteronomy, are expressed according to the same syllogistic reasoning as was used for the definitions of belief-in-desire and actual desire, for the gospel of Luke. This introduction concludes by arguing that the first quartet of The Apocalypse, the series of letters, functions representatively of the soterio-eschatological perspective specific to the gospel of Mark. It then argues that the narrative cycles of Genesis 1.1-2-4a and the messianic series in tandem are the subjects referred to in the second series, the seven seals, 'a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals' (Apocalypse 5.1, βιβλίον γεγραμμένον ἔσωθεν καὶ ⸀ὄπισθεν, κατεσφραγισμένον σφραγῖσιν ἑπτά, emphases added.)

2  THE SEMEIACOUSTIKA: AN INTRODUCTION  (09.09.2020, Currently available.)

Following the introduction of haptic memory/haptic semiosis belonging to the hermeneutic of Transformation Of Water Into Wine in relation to the gospel of Luke, this chapter interprets The Feeding Of The Five Thousand a propos of acoustic memory/acoustic semiosis relative to the gospel of Mark. Rudimentary structures including the dodecaphonic scale, the two whole tone scales, the diatonic and pentatonic scales, are introduced. The sevenfold (diatonic scales) are first accounted for since the two cadences at the the 4th-3rd degree and 7th-8th degree iterate the various forms of intentionality as the transition between the two radical polarities of mind, conceptual and perceptual, presented in the two Christological narratives: Transfiguration  and  Transformation. The figures 4 and 7, ciphers of immanence, pronounced within the Pneumatological Eucharistic miracle, The Feeding Of The Four Thousand, and The Apocalypse as a whole, isolate the single occurrence of the interval augmented fourth/diminished fifth in the diatonic. This interval, also known as diabolus in musica, which is exclusive to the sevenfold scale, is highly salient for the theology of acoustic semiotic forms.

It highlights two cadences, the two occasions within that scale when the interval of a semitone links 3 tones of one whole tone series, with 4 of the other at two different relations, in the scale, expressed as temporal and transitional. The two sixfold whole tone series bespeak the radical division of categoreal radicals of mind as either conceptual or perceptual. The subtraction of the same degrees of the scale, the fourth and seventh degrees, results in the pentatonic. The pentad occurs twice in details of the Transcendental Eucharistic story, just as the heptad does in those of the Pneumatological Eucharistic story.

Thus the two Eucharistic narratives, the Transcendental miracle denoting acoustic memory, and the Pneumatological miracle denoting optic memory, are of a piece. They are bound together representatively of the sentient modes indispensable to communication, hence communion. The latter term, as it suggests the Eucharist itself, is later discussed as part of the doctrine of presentational immediacy, inclusively of its analogue in the creation narrative, Sabbath. The two ciphers of immanence, 7 and 4, are thus intelligible in relation to the these events, Sabbath-Eucharist. Both are the seventh episodes in their series, and both are fourth in their serial subsets, the last four days, and the four feeding ('Eucharistic') events.

We revisit the sign of Jonah saying 'three days and three nights' as well as the same formula contained within the three passion predictions in Mark, and the reference to four days in the story of Lazarus, as eschatological markers, and summary references to the twelvefold categories of mind disclosed in the two taxonomies, creation and salvation, Genesis and gospel.


3 THE ACOUSTIC SEMIOSIS  (25.04.2022, Currently available.)
 
This chapter completes the representation by acoustic semiotic forms of both the twelve categoreal radicals of mind and the corresponding twelve forms of intentionality which they generate, begun previously with the brief discussion of the two hexatonic (whole-tone) scales. It lays down the categoreal schema in terms of simple axioms. The several binary structures of consciousness are addressed: for example theoretical versus practical reason, conative versus cognitive modes of intentionality, and others, following the first level distinction of conceptual and perceptual categories delivered in the integration of the story of beginning or creation, with that of end, the messianic series. Their relation is plainly disclosed semiologically in the clear division of the dodecaphonic series into two co-ordinated hexadic sub-series. After briefly considering the semeiacoustika as mantra, it introduces the emphatic role of transmutation in the Christological miracle stories, as bearing upon the relation of the two poles represented by the hextaonic series, and the two sacraments, baptism and Eucharist, in relation to the 'seventh' episode in both series, creation and salvation.


4 IDENTITY : UNITY QUA SUBJECT : OBJECT (09.05.2022, Currently available.)

The discussion of dichotomous structures within the two serial texts, creation and messianic events, focuses on the use of transmutation in the Christological miracle stories, Transformation Of Water Into Wine and Transfiguration. The bipolar nature of consciousness concerning the second level application of the categoreal paradigm, the recapitulation of the formula transcendence : immanence, within each sevenfold series, is assessed. This emphasises the reciprocity of the two narratives, creation and messianic series, since it arranges the 'transcendent' (identity) miracles correlatively to the first half of the Days rubrics; and the second half of the latter, which present the three forms of unity, correlatively to the feeding (immanent) narratives. (The same pattern emerged in the acoustic semiosis in terms of the two juxtaposed forms of cadences, descending and ascending.) The assessment of these two interrelated sub-categories addresses the contrast between axiological subjectivism and axiological objectivism.

5 BAPTISM-EUCHARIST AND THE IMMEDIATE PRESENT (19.09.2019, Currently available.)

Knowing and the will-to-believe are foundational to Markan theology. The first, the conscious member of these analogous modes of intentionality, defines the reaches of the proximal past and borders upon the present. Knowing, the perceptual mode of intentionality, is outlined in the recapitulation of the details of both miracle narratives, The Feeding Of The Five Thousand and The Feeding Of The Four Thousand, subsequently to the latter, (Mark 8.14-21), referring to this conscious, cognitive mode in a variety of ways. Knowing must then be reckoned in relation to the Eucharist. The seven types of knowing are to be presented similarly to the previous discussion of the various instances of desire in the study of Luke, since both modes, knowing and desire, are effected by the perceptual polarity of consciousness. The significance of knowing, as well as that of desire for Eucharistic theology is considered. The discussion considers theology itself as a modus cognoscendi, evinced in the Sabbath-Eucharist narratives which complete their series. The canonical form of knowing as disclosed by the acoustic semiosis, and as the overarching subject matter of The Markan Mandala, is philosophical psychology qua Christology; and the canonical expression of the will-to-believe is the resolution of human political convictions. The principle expression of Christian theology parallel to the Markan perspective is introduced: the Reformed tradition. The world religion which likewise best typifies idiomatically Markan soteriology-eschatology, that of knowing and the will-to-believe, is briefly introduced also: Sanatana Dharma.



SITING THE APOCALYPSE  (17.03.2019.)


THE THREE EUCHARISTIC MIRACLES: PERCEIVING THE WORD AS TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS  (11.03.2020.)


HORSEMEN AND HOLOCAUSTS: THE APOCALYPSE AND 'THE CHURCH MILITANT' (06.08.2020.)

This paper contains no abstract. It highlights the hypertextual character of the book as a whole, and demonstrates very clearly, that any hermeneutic of The Apocalypse, or the least part of it, here Apocalypse 6.3-4, the vision of the rider on the red horse, demands extensive familiarity with, and understanding of a range of texts from both canons. The texts immediately entailed in the hermeneutic of the seven seals are the P creation story and the messianic series, whose hermeneutics I have summarized in a highly condensed form in this paper. (I emphasize that these two primary texts, the stories of 'beginning and end', as indispensable to the propositional content of Christian doctrine, and not The Apocalypse, constitute my theological focus.) 

The paper discusses the genocidal colonization of South America by the Spanish and Portuguese, who represented debased and psycho-pathological forms of Roman Catholicism, and similarly, that of North America by representatives of equally debased forms of English and Continental Protestantism. The typology in question concerns the infrahumanzing and coercive tendencies inherent in the perversion of will in both forms; conscious and aconscious respectively. Their operations stem from the Transcendental components of consciousness, the conceptual form space, and the perceptual form acoustic imagination. These evince Christological doctrine, and advert to the theological parameters idiomatically proper to the gospel of Matthew, as the reference of that particular living creature who summons that particular horseman. 

MANTRA, MUDRA, MANDALA (16.08.2022, currently available.)


THE MOTIF OF 'CROSSING TO THE OTHER SIDE'  (17.08.2022, currently available.)


THE FALL, BEFORE AND BEYOND PAUL: A POST-POSTLAPSARIAN THEOLOGY OF DEATH?  (18.02.2023, currently available.)

In the wake of the reassessment of Paul's 'theologizing', and the realization that 'the' theology of the New Testament is once more an open question, this essay contests the ongoing focus upon the second creation account, that of the J narrative, centering upon doctrines of the Fall, ultimately deriving from Paul. In particular it contends against the imputation to a 'primordial' Adam - and presumably a primordial Eve, the principle topic of that story as a theology of immanence, notwithstanding that Paul's theology of recapitulation never explicitly mentions her - of death. I propose that the neglect of the P narrative has had formidably negative consequences for systematic theology, and moreover that this surviving trend is both logically indefensible and grossly inept given that the messianic series, multiply attested by all four  gospels, recurs to the P narrative consistently and systematically.

Three forms of value are fundamental to the triadic disposition of pre-human and human consciousness, that is, to intentionality, and indispensable to the unity of identities in God, that is, God's immanent nature: these are the good, the true and the beautiful. The last of these concerns Pneumatology, and it answers the pressing need for a Christian theology of religions. Its outlines we encounter in The Apocalypse; most remarkably in the references to the 'seven spirits of God' (Apocalypse 1.4, 3.1, 4.5, 5.6.) These are the epiphany of God's Holy Spirit 'sent forth into all the earth.' The typologically feminine character of predominantly Asian forms of religious consciousness, in distinction from Judaism, Christianity and Islam, particularly those of Sanatana Dharma and Buddhisms, which share certain eschatological postulates, tallies with Pneumatological doctrine as essential to the purview of this last member of the canon. The temporal provenance of those same traditions, viz. that they arise uniformly prior to the advent of 'The Son', tells for the same. This essay is intended as a propaedeutic to a comprehensive and pluralistic Christian eschatology; that is, a Christian-Eucharistic theology of religions, essential to understanding The Apocalypse.


The site adopts as a primary source for the theological enterprise the literature of both canons.  Its foundation is in the first instance biblical, accepting the gospel of Mark as a key to the other two synoptic gospels, and as an optimal point of entry into the Christian tradition. It is very probably the earliest of the four gospels in the opinion of the  majority of contemporary scholars. The word 'biblical' indicates a cross referencing between both testaments, the Hebrew Scriptures or Tanakh, and the New Testament. Aimed at the Anglophone member of the literate public sufficiently interested in religion generally, and in the Christian tradition in particular, the site is demotic rather than academic in character. I have deliberately avoided footnotes, and used instead, freely available online resources wherever possible.

It contains also, significant references to a variety of philosophical and religious traditions of the world, some of which continue to claim the allegiance of millions of humans today. Thus the various forms of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, have much to teach us. The use of the word 'mandala' in the name of this site testifies to my conviction that certain aspects of Mark's doctrine can be best appropriated by adopting some of the theories and practices common to these other religions, which have been largely left out of account in classical Christian theism to its detriment. It is in relation to the hermeneutic of The Apocalypse that the embrace of these religious traditions will be essential.

I do not seek to understand so that I may believe,
but I believe so that I may understand;
and what is more,

I believe that unless I do believe I shall not understand.

There can be no practice void of theory, and any exercise of philosophical (theological) contemplation, must examine in detail theses narratives foundational to the Christian tradition, as resources for such. The practical outcomes of the study focus on meditation. Christianity already offers traditions of meditation both longstanding and varied. Few if any of these accept the gospels as their basis; few incorporate either philosophical or alternative religious traditions, and none contains a fully articulated and coherent doctrine concerning human nature, nor more specifically, a comprehensive theory of mind. Such as these concerns also are reflected in the use of the word 'mandala' as a description of the gospel of Mark.

But these outcomes will utilise mudra and mantra as well as mandala. That is, they will employ the 'three mysteries' of the esoteric Buddhist traditions of China (sanmi), Japan (sanmitsu), and Tibet ('three vajras'). These are: body (mudra), speech (mantra) and mind (mandala) of esoteric Buddhist practice. This no mere syncretism for its own sake. As we see from the theology of perception central to the messianic series and the four Eucharistic events, the three texts which are the focus of The Markan Mandala are precisely the messianic series, the P creation narrative and The Apocalypse. These reflect the three perspectives of the immanent nature(s) of The Son, The Transcendent, and The Holy Spirit respectively, and iterate the doctrine of the immanent imago Dei: touching-mudra, hearing-mantra and seeing-mandala. I propose on the basis of the axiologies common to both the P creation and messianic miracle narratives, that this same triad is identical with the Socratic triad of the good, the true and the beautiful.

Another singular innovation however for the practice of Christian meditation, is that of the adoption of the theology of time in accordance with its import for the doctrine of mind or logos pursued here. Most classical Christian traditions of meditative praxis follow the basic patterns of the liturgical year with Christmas and Easter as central points, and a plethora of other festivals, numerous saint's days for example. A radical departure from that is made here. The four gospels themselves provide the template for a natural theology which takes as its lynchpin the division of the year into four seasons. Process theology, which seeks to deploy natural theology in keeping with recent trends in philosophy towards reconnecting with nature, is incorporated as congenial to this strand of thought in The Markan Mandala.

A natural theology of time is thus taken as fundamental to religious consciousness in general, from the inception of the literature, which frames the creation within a week of serial days. The periodic cycles of the year, season, month, week, and day, are in themselves already relevant to the practice of meditation, and the means to reconnect with nature as a source for the development of the inner life. Indeed time itself is a pre-supposition pre-eminently radical to all religious praxes. Finally, the methodical integration of structures innate to musical expression evinced at the global or ecumenical level, and stemming from the hermeneutic of the feeding miracle narratives, will in turn render these pages immediately germane to those interested musical theory and practice. The same may be said of readers whose chief approach to the interpretation of scripture is grafted to philosophical psychology.

Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from the Old Testament are from the NET Bible, except for certain citations from Genesis. For these, I have used the translation by John J. Scullion of Westermann's translation of Genesis contained in his commentary: Westermann, Claus, Genesis 1-11, A Commentary, Translated by John J. Scullion S. J., SPCK, Great Britain and Augsburg Publishing House USA, 1984; (German Edition first published in 1974 by Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn). All quotations from the New Testament are from The Nestle-Aland Greek-English New Testament, The Eighth Revised Edition, 1994.

The site uses the Greek and Hebrew fonts, SPIonic and SPTiberian available for download from the Scholars Press Non Roman Fonts website. The following sites contain useful copies and translations of the scriptures:

(Greek) Septuagint and (Hebrew) Tanakh: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (fully vocalised and cantillated version).

Septuagint

Greek New Testament (N.A. 28)

MIRACLES AS METAPHYSICS: A Hermeneutic Of Mark is available in its entirety: Introduction; 1 The Messianic Miracles And Their Precedent; 2 The Messianic Miracles; 3 Epilogue. The following are also available: MIND AND TIME: The Theology of Semiotic Forms - 1 Prologue; 2 Mind In The Gospel And Genesis; LUKE: 1 Desire And Belief-In-Desire; MARK: 1: Knowing And The Will-To-Believe; 2: The Semeiacoustika: An Introduction; 3 The Acoustic Semiosis; and 4 Identity : Unity Qua Subject : Object; 5 Baptism-Eucharist And The Immediate Present; MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS INCLUDING ABSTRACTS: The Motif Of 'Crossing To The Other Side'; Mantra, Mudra, Mandala; and The Fall, Before And Beyond Paul. The remainder of the site is in the process of being further edited.

Contact:  jc@markanmandala.info


Page updated 28.04.2023.

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